MnDOT commissioner tapped to lead Minneapolis public works

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is nominating Minnesota Department of Transportation Commissioner Margaret Anderson Kelliher to lead public works for the city of Minneapolis.

If the Minneapolis City Council approves her appointment, she would join the agency as state and local governments start to see an influx of infrastructure spending from the federal law.

"Margaret Anderson Kelliher's leadership pedigree and volume of accomplishments in multimodal transportation for all users make her the right leader for our city's largest department at the right time, especially given the historic federal investment in infrastructure," Frey said in a statement on Friday. "She has advanced meaningful, sustainable change at the highest levels of state government."

The Minneapolis Public Works Department is currently being led by interim director Brette Hjelle, who took over in 2021 after former director Robin Hutcheson left to take a job in the Biden administration.

Kelliher has led the state's top transportation department and its more than 5,000 employees for the past three years, helping to shape policy, deploy funding and managing construction projects. She will remain in her role at MnDOT pending approval of her appointment by the council, according to a release from Gov. Tim Walz's office.

"Every Minnesotan deserves safe and efficient roads that bring them home to their families, and as we look to the future, our next generations of Minnesotans deserve clean air and a healthy climate," Walz said in a statement. "Every day, Commissioner Anderson Kelliher has worked tirelessly toward those goals. I am confident that she will continue to serve Minnesotans well in her new role with the City of Minneapolis."

Kelliher previously represented Minneapolis in the state Legislature, rising to the role of Speaker of the Minnesota House. She was instrumental in the 2008 override of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of a gas tax increase. Kelliher unsuccessfully sought the governor's office in 2010 and went on to lead the Minnesota High Tech Association before joining Walz's team.

As head of the transportation department, she pushed for more funding for state bridges and oversaw billions of dollars of road projects. The governor's office cited her efforts expanding the agency's work consulting with state Tribal Nations and a new Sustainable Transportation Advisory Council.

Kelliher said she's worked with the city's public works department on a series of improvement projects from downtown to crosstown, as well as the Third Avenue Bridge replacement project.

"I've seen the dedication of city staff firsthand and the power that this local government has to make an immediate difference in people's lives," Kelliher said in a statement about her appointment.

Staff writer Liz Navratil contributed to this report.